Soap tablet.



UNITED STATES Patented August 2, 1904.

ALBERT E. *HUGHES, OF DARIEN, CONNECTICUT.

SOAP TABLET.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 766,254, dated August2, 1904.

Application filed June 18, 1901.

1'0 rtl w/wm it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ALBERT E. Hueuns, a citizen of the United States,and a resident of Darien, Fairtield county,Connecticut, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Tablets, of which the followingis a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in tablets, with particularrelation to individual soap tablets of the class adapted for use butonce only. Many object, for sanitary reasons, to the use of the ordinarysoap provided in public places-such as hotels, ofiiee buildings, andrailway-carswhere many people may successively make use of the samepiece of soap. Many endeavors have been made to produce a means toovercome this objection, but none of them have gone into extensive use.The use of soap powder for such purposes is wasteful and where used indelivering-tubes has been found to choke the apparatus governing thedelivery, and so render it ineffective. In overcoming this latterobjection small soap tablets have been prepared; but they have proved tobe practically useless, as they have been diflicult of disintegration,and consequently hard to use.

By my invention I have provided a soap tablet orball having a protectiveshell sufficiently hard to withstand ordinary handling andtransportation and a comparatively loose interior, the whole beingcapable of easy disintegration when brought into contact with water inthe ordinary use of the toilet. Each tablet is preferably of the sizedesired for use once only. The tablets may be carried about in anyconvenient receptacle adapted to hold as many as desired or may be usedin connection with a delivering apparatus delivering one or more at atime. I thus obviate waste, as there is no excess of soap used, andprevent the choking of the delivering apparatus, as the same may beadapted for safely delivering a predetermined number at a time.

I shall describe a tablet embodying my invention, stating a preferablemeans for making the same, the features of my invention Serial No.65,074. (No model.)

being more particularly pointed out in the claims.

In preparing my tablet I preferably use a preparation in powdered formeither of pure dry soap of any desirable kind or of soap mingled withany desirable substance to be used as a filler. This powder is lightlypressed in molds of suitable form, preferably spherical, the compressionbeing sufficient to hold the particles together for the subsequentoperation, but not sufficient to hold them permanently together. Theresulting tablet or form is treated with some suitable substance whichmay be applied in solution and which, in conjunction with the powder,will form a coat or shell sufficiently hard and firm to enable thetablets to bear handling and transportation. This coating may be appliedin the form of a spray, or the tablet may be dropped into the solution,it being desirable to avoid handling the tablets during the coatingprocess. The result of this process is a tablet sufficiently firm tobear handling, yet very easily disintegrated on the application ofwater. The tablets thus made are a sanitary and desirable form of soapfor separate individual use in all public places, as heretofore stated.

It is obvious that the exact composition and form of the tablet and thematerial of and means for forming the shell may be varied withoutdeparting from the spirit of my invention.

Having described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure byLetters Patent, 1s-

1. As an article of manufacture a soap tablet having a loose,minutely-divided interior and a shell capable of disintegration in thepresence of water, substantially as described.

2. As an article of manufacture a soap tablet having a loose,minutely-divided interior and a hard, soluble shell capable ofdisintegration in the presence of water, substantially as described.

3. As an article of manufacture, a soap tablet having a loose,minutely-divided interior and a soluble shell capable of disintegrationin the presence of Water, substantially as de- In witness whereof I havehereunto signed scribed. my name in the presence of two subscribing 4.As an article of manufacture a soap tab- Witnesses. let having aloosely-divided interior and a ALBERT E. HUGHES. 5 hardened shell-likeexterior capable of disin- Witnesses:

tegration in the presence of Water, substan- ELMER E. CooLEY,

tially as described. SEABURY C. MASTIOK.

